I’ve been running the latest and greatest version of WLM (Windows Live Messenger) for close to nine months now. Although there are some things I can get used to, one thing has always irked me about this version (15.4.3508.1109)—the inability to change your name. Meaning that WLM forces you to have a first name and a last name properly filled in. I’ve just discovered a way to circumnavigate it, and it’s legal. It’s a useful utility called Character Map, and it’s found in all Windows versions. According to Wikipedia Character Map “is a utility included with Microsoft Windows operating systems and is used to view the characters in any installed font, to check what keyboard input (Alt code) is used to enter those characters, and to copy characters to the clipboard in lieu of typing them. The tool is usually useful for entering special characters.”
Here’s what I did. I didn’t want my last name to appear in WLM, I just wanted Philip. In the WLM main window just below your display picture, click on your Name and a drop down menu will appear. Choose Edit your Name. A browser window will open up. Leave it in the background for now. Bring up Character Map by going to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map. Or you can just type charmap.exe in the Run dialog box. Scroll down almost all the way until you find the U+202A: Left-To-Right Embedding symbol. It’s one of the blank symbols (see picture below) Then select it and click on Copy. That will copy it to the Windows clipboard. Don’t worry if you don’t see it in the Characters to copy window, it’s there.
Once this is done, I go back to my browser window where the Edit Name is displayed. I delete my last name and then paste the U+202A into the same box (Ctrl+V will do it) Click on Save and I’m done. I log out and then back in to WLM and voila! Only my first name appears. Simple, huh?
